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Questions? Jerry caught his breath, glancing around at the others... sure he had arrived late, but he had gotten a blow in, hadn't he? And... and that seemed to constitute being able to ask a question without looking foolish nor greedy?

And he did have a question. One that had been bothering him for days now.

He lowered his bazooka, resting on the end as he cleared his throat, "Er... Sir... if... if you might know..." He hefted Roar up again to take a few steps closer, although he had a feeling others might be curious as well, "When... That... Chill, Caelius had informed us about. When we took that pill there was... I don't know. I heard a hissing and.. it was.. it was like something was inside me, I don't now... but it wasn't Roar. What... what was it?" It was a rather important question, he felt, and hoped knowing an answer would help him sleep easier.

Or maybe it wouldn't. Who knew?

That was fast. He was giving up just like that? Candace looked very put off when Ben called a time out, huffing out a sigh and doing as she was told. Damnit. He was acting like some pansyass. Ignore the fact that he was hit like ten times, it didn't matter. He was being a wuss! This wasn't cool. But at least they got their questions, now to just get their answers. His advice was duly noted. It was good advice for once, not the cocky sarcasm of some b*****d with a god complex or the sadistic experiments of some creeper.

"I want to know about Aria." Candace frowned. "I don't care about who she turned out to be. Caelius killed her. She's useless. Was she just a spy this whole time or was there ever a real Aria at some point?"

Ennéa wanted to ask a question. She had managed to actually hit Ben, after all, and she was feeling pretty proud about that. So what if afterwards she forgot to move out of the way and had gotten smacked by Leon's chainsaw, it still counted. One of those ten questions should be hers to ask.

Only, she couldn't think of anything to worthwhile to ask. Even she knew that wasting one of the their precious questions on something silly like 'Why did the cookies in the mess hall taste so good?' would probably get her throttled by the rest of her fellow hunters. Ennéa unconsciously rubbed her throat as she thought. 'Why was Caelius such a grump?' No, that wouldn't work either. Anyway, Ennéa supposed, Caelius was probably grumpy at them just because they were trainees, kind of like how the seniors picked on you just because you were a tiny lost freshman and didn't know which way was the gym. Ugh.

Baraz piped up. What about what that thing said before it died?

"Hm?" Ennéa said, totally distracted. Her mind was wandering into weird high school AU places. Dr. H would probably be the weird science teacher that all the students complained about. And Clarice...

You know, Baraz said impatiently, that monster thing. He rolled his single eye when Ennéa still looked blank. That big scary creature Aria turned into, the one we fought??

"Yeah? What about it?" Ennéa asked.

It said something before it died, about how Halloween cannot die.

"Wait, you think it'll come back from the dead??" Ennéa didn't like that idea one bit.

I don't know. That's why we ask, Pinkie. Baraz said.

Ennéa chewed on her lip, "I guess?" She said dubiously.

She turned to Ben and spoke up. "Um, so on the mission, when we fought that giant monster, it said something before it died, about how Halloween cannot die." Ennéa shrugged. "That is, I mean, first it was not!Aria but then Caelius killed it... or maybe Aria's weapon did? I'm not sure, it was kind of confusing. But then it came back even bigger and it had all these weird freaky powers like icy fire and making the world go all grey, and um, yeah. It's not coming back from the dead yet again, is it? Because we fought this one zombie girl and she kept coming back and..."

Ennéa paused, this question was getting rapidly out of hand, she realized. "I just want to know what are we supposed to do if we really can't kill all those monsters?" She finished lamely.

While Ben put up a good show as the first question was asked, he seemed not as confident as a second, then third, then fourth popped up. Maybe asking ten questions was not the most brilliant thing he had thought of this morning.

"Okay, umm... hold on a sec, first question number one." He put one finger up, eyebrows furrowing in intense concentration.

"Ah yes, the post-death effect known as 'The Chill'. It is actually not a very common effect at all. The best way to explain the effects of it is... I guess like an infection. When you are nearing death, it is very easy to get infections that may linger in your body and cause ah, bodily harm. At the beginning stages you might look and feel okay, but when it begins to spread, well... usually they put you out of your misery." It was obvious where that train of thought was going.

"Anyway, next question, oh yes, the notorious missing-in-action Sun and Moon faction leaders. Despite popular belief, there are very few members of the Council who grace us with their ever excellent presence. The Sun and Moon faction leaders work remotely, they do not actually work or live on the island but instead are stationed elsewhere manning the posts. You'll see very little of them, but their division get by day to day." Ben gave Marcus a sideways look. "You should probably ask one of the senior Moon Hunters for the assistance you are looking for, they are considered one of the nicer divisions."

A pause as the substitute instructor entirely forgot what the next question was.

'The girl in the purple'. Baki grunted. 'Question about Aria.'

"Oh right, third question was about Aria." Ben frowned as he compared the girl's information to Caelius's, though there was very little of the latter that was not just hinted at. "I don't think Aria is dead. From what I hear, Aria left for her last mission conveniently at the same time the impostor took over. How the impostor knew about the timing is another story but we won't know until the real Aria is actually retrieved."

He was quick to pick up the next question, which meant the entire Aria thing was a sensitive topic in general. Considering how the trainees had just learned about their endearing pet name, it was only open speculation at how much else went under their noses. "Ahhh... the horsemen, always the wild card. Actually horsemen were never quite under our control, those things actually managed to lock themselves into into our barrier, so we had to play the most exasperating game of hide and seek during one of the trainee candidate sessions. If they are reappearing again however, hmm, that is actually a rather interesting piece of information.." It seemed Ben did not know much about the horsemen's current status quo either.

Ennea's question was a lot harder to explain at this point, so the substitute instructor simply repeated what Baki was feeding him about Fear. "All creatures within Halloween are made of a substance called Fear. Unlike blood or anything solid, Fear is an immaterial substance, given the ability to bring things to a life-like state. That means uh, even if it feels like you've killed one of them, they can come back repeatedly as long as they have enough Fear in themselves to reform. Hunter weapons are actually supposed to prevent this from happening, so if your opponent keeps on dissipating and coming back, you're probably not draining them of enough of their Fear, nothing that experience will not fix in good time."

Well, this was kind of tiring. How many questions did he have left? At least the next one was easy. "In the event that you do want a faction change, you will have to apply for it on your promotion request. That means for most Hunters, the option of a division change is out of the question, sometimes it is not really a matter of suiting your division but rather learning to work within it." Ben gave Ariane a small knowledgeable wink: they were in the same faction after all. "But I understand your sentiments, if you are still interested, talk to me after the session and I'll set you up with the correct paperwork."

A pause as he scanned their faces one more time. They looked a little less strained than they did when the strays had started off, this was a good sign.

"All right, if that's the end of the questions, let's pair you off and have you work togeth-"

- a high pitched ringing tone interrupted him halfway. With a look of slight surprise, Ben pulled out his cell phone, glancing at it before flipping it open. "Yes sir?" A pause as he digested the request. "I will assemble a team immediately, we are on our way."

The phone flipped close and the trainees' substitute instructor gave them an apologetic sort of look. "Well I guess you'll have to practice sparring sometime later on your own time. Look, add me to your contacts list if you have any questions okay, I promise I'll answer them when I get back. My number is listed on the Death Hunter division list, fourth or fifth name from the top. Good work trainees, I guess uh, its class dismissed then."

Ben gave the sloppiest salute ever, nearly slipping himself on the grass before sprinting back to the facilities.

Marcus was tempted but, not right now. Maybe later in the day. Ben seemed like something was going down and frankly, he was fine to be left alone. Nice to know people didn't think Aria was dead at least. Horsemen... that was more or less a touch confusing as usual. Shrugging Marcus waved at Madison.

"I'm game if not right now, would you mind if I asked for a rain check to grab a decent breakfast first?'

Before honestly had a question he wanted to ask. But he hesitated and now he'd lost the opportunity. :< ********. Then again, it was the sort of question he would have dreaded hearing the answer to anyway so maybe it was best that he missed his chance.

What did you wish to ask of him, silly Before?

O-oh, nothing important. Just, y'know, what the mortality rate is for Hunters and Trainees.

Vanna did not like that question and preferred to distract her partner with a mental nudge towards Madison's direction. She seems to require a sparring partner. GO BE IT! the weapon ordered.

With a startled leap at the sudden increase in volume, Before stumbled towards the blade-wielding Trainee with an eep and quickly following with "U-uh, if you don't mind me, um, I-I'm game for a few hits." He mentally hoped it would not involve him bleeding all over everything as a result.

"Mind if I watch?" he directed the question to Before and Madison. Bix wasn't much for strategy beyond what he'd done in video games, but watching his two friends spar may be an enlightening experience. He had been a little disappointed in his own performance this morning but he was already awake, showered and fed.

"Maybe I can heckle you guys.. for distraction!" he waggled his fingers around. "It's not often lately we get to just watch fights without being attacked ourselves."

Bix smirked and shook his head. "I won't attack you.. but how about I shoot around your feet?" he shrugged. "Keep you guys on the move." It wouldn't be fair to just fire on them.

"What do you think Madison?" Bix scratched the back of his head.




[[ I can always do something like roll a 1d10 every turn and if it's over 5 Bix does 1 damage to each of you guys while firing at your feets XD ]]